In overall configuration, the Slade House is a rectangular-plan box with a steep roof — a form commonly seen in the crayon drawings of elementary-school-age children. What distinguishes it, however, is the subtlety and interplay of those elements that relieve the basic box. The ample, welcoming, semi-octagonal-plan entrance porch, with its entrance set at an angle, nicely intersects the shallow bay window to its west. Similarly, a semi-octagonal-plan three-story tower projects from the west elevation and also intersects another character-defining feature, the glazed sun porch at the south end of the west elevation. The flared hip roof, with wide eaves, dramatically culminates in a balustraded deck at its crest. The calculated quality of the orchestration of all these elements as well as fine proportions further reinforce this as the work of talented architects, which Stone, Carpenter & Willson certainly were, at their prime in the mid-1890s, when this was designed. Mr. Slade’s profession was listed as gold refiner when the couple first occupied the house, but he soon became on officer in Starkweather & Williams, a company that dealt in drugs, paints, oils, and artists’ and photographers’ supplies.
– 2010 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook
The street address is 40 Irving Ave. We have lived here since Dec. 2006 and were on one of the Preservation Society House tours.